Posts Tagged ‘costume’

The pineapple print was one of the first print introduced in the early 1970’s when Playboy started adding them to their lineup of bunny costumes.

The Pineapple print was rather popular and came in two versions, Red and Black.

Famous bunnies in Pineapple print costumes include Carol Vitale who appeared on the cover of Playboy in august 1972, won Miami Plaza bunny of the year also in 1972 and was a Playmate of the month in July of 1974… she even kept her Pineapple print ears when leaving Playboy.

Playmate Bunny Carol Vitale

A black version of the print is also worn by one of the bunnies seen working at the London Playboy club in the move “The games” from 1970

Regardless of its original popularity in the clubs the Pineapple print rarely shows up today and is now a valuable collectors print.

This is a bunny costume sold by Playboy and is modeled by 2007 PMOY Sara Jean Underwood.

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With the bunny costume being the icon that it is many have tried to get their hands on the real thing.
But since that will cost thousands of dollars for a really good copy (that really shouldn’t be worn due to its collectible nature) most end up looking for a good-looking replica and the truth is… there aren’t any.

Most of the stuff that comes up when searching for a “Playboy bunny costume” is cheap and tacky, which works on its own but when compared to the original thing comes nowhere close.
Your best bet, if you want to be a Playboy bunny for Halloween, is to make your own costume.

Even the costume Playboy is currently selling can be found elsewhere online, cheaper…

3wishes.com is an alternate source for "Playboy's" costume

… It is surprising since Playboy has their own line of costumes.

So the question remains.

Since the demand for bunny costumes is so high, why doesn’t Playboy use it to their advantage?

It is surely understandable that they don’t want to sell exact replicas of their original design but something that is based on it , looks like it and has the Playboy name on it would surely sell in truckloads…

This is the perfect opportunity to start featuring individual bunny costumes… starting with the Halloween print!

After prints were introduced to the bunny costume lineup in the early 70’s the all over look of the bunnies became more versatile.
Prints were more exclusive than the solid colored costumes as each club only fitted each print to a select few and no costume ever looked exactly alike.

The Halloween print bares resemblance to the holiday in its colors and patterns. Consisting of orange, black, yellow, red and brown, this was one of the two costume prints that had polka-dotted fabric.

In America the Halloween print was a rare print but more noticable in the clubs around Halloween, in the UK however the print was somewhat rare in regular circulation.

Since it’s Halloween week I’ll be putting together a post on how to put together a pretty good-looking bunny costume.
But in the meantime check out this cool YouTube video of how to make one on a budget!

Within a year of the first bunny costume going into use at the clubs a number of changes were made.

One of the most noticable changes came with the name tag, pinned to the right hip (left if the bunny was left-handed). This placement put the name tag at eye-level with the customers while serving them so they could easily identify each bunny, soon the sides of the legs were heightened to lengthen the leg.

A rosette nametag was added to the right hip

It was then when Playboy hired Chicago seamstress Renée Blot to prefect the design.
She got to work eliminating the need for a corset underneath the satin and together with Chicago corset maker Kabo came up with a boned one-piece costume.

By 1964 the design of the bodice was complete and has remained the same ever since.
The original satin had been replaced, bones had been added to the inside for support and the cups were now made from the same foam car seats are made out of, the costume was also a washable and highly durable one piece shell that came in only two cup sizes, 34 and 36D (which required most bunnies to stuff their bust with anything they could find, from plastic bags to bunny tails.)
The costume was now available in 12 colors with most popular being black, red peacock blue and emerald green.

With the costume the over sized ears were also modified to better frame a bunnies face and not be too overbearing on her head, the original fish net and later mesh dancer tights were replaced by Danskin sheer black and nude tights (bunnies had to wear one of each) and the tail was made larger to compliment a bunnies natural assets.

Mid transformation - note the large ears

Through all the changes in the costume itself though, it still remained a regulation to wear 3″ died to match satin pumps, which the bunnies had to supply themselves by getting a swatch of their costume from the seamstress.

The most important change however came in adding the finishing touched to the look.
Even though Hef had always like the outfit he felt something was missing, the bunny costumes could easily be mistaken by bathing suits with ears and a tail pinned to it.
He went back to look at the Playboy logo, the original inspiration for the costume, and noticed that the bunny was wearing a bow tie.
Hef mentioned this to Renée and she came up with cuffs and a collar with a clip on bow tie to wear with the costume… this turned out to be the perfect addition in completing the bunny transformation.

Hugh Hefner inspects the new bunny costume designs at his mansion

The bunny costume truly is the work of great engineering and intelligence and for the almost 50 years that the bunny costume has been around it has been surrounded with mystique and certainly has become an icon in it’s own right.

The very first Playboy costumes were very different from what we know today.

The original inspiration came from the costumes worn by waitresses at a rival Chicago club “The Gaslight Club”.
As with the Gaslight outfits Hefner wanted his bunny outfits to be both modest and revealing at the same time, a perfect presentation of the “look but don’t touch” feel of the club.

He therefor knew that a legend was born when Ilsa Taurins, whose mother had designed the original concept, stepped into the half finished Playboy Club in Chicago, wearing the original satin bodice with ears and a fluffy tail.
Quickly, the right type of fabric was found and some boning added in the form of a corset… the costume was ready to be put into use.

The original costume was constructed from heavy rayon-satin that was stretched over a merry widow corset similar to this one…

The original costumes were made from merry widow corsets

So when a bunny was hired she had to go get herself a corset that fit and then take it to the Playboy club seamstress.
The seamstress would then fit the satin over the corset and make ears… that didn’t always match the color of the costume.
Then the bunnies would wear small yarn tails, black fish net stockings and high heels to complete the look.

This original design was used for a very shot time and only in the Playboy Club in Chicago, being updated within the first year from the opening of the club.

Chicago Playboy club, 1960 – note the mismatched ears

It did it’s job and within a month 14.000 keyholders had visited the club to view the fabulous Playboy bunnies.

In 1959, Playboy ran a feature on Key-clubs in the pages of its magazine.
The Key-clubs were a new type of club where membership was required to gain access.

In response to this article many of the magazine subscribers wrote in to express interest in visiting a Playboy club and were asking if such a club existed.
Hugh Hefner, the founder and owner of the magazine, immediately liked the idea of a club where his ideas and philosophy of a modern lifestyle could come to life outside his Playboy mansion so he set to work creating his own dream world.

Hefner realized that the most important part of the club would be the waitresses.
His magazine was all about beautiful women and the waitresses had to be every man’s fantasy, his first idea was to have women who looked like his regular playmates wear nighties as a service uniform but quickly dismissed that due to how unsafe and unpractical it was.

It was then when Victor Lownes, Hugh Hefner’s friend, who suggested to dress the waitresses up as bunnies.
Hef had originally thought of his bunny head logo as a male rabbit so he didn’t take to the idea right away but Lownes got his girlfriend and her mother to put together a prototype costume, showed it to Hef and the rest is history.

The Playboy bunny was born.

Hef's first look at a prototype bunny costume

If you have any questions about Playboy bunnies or the Playboy clubs or would like to see a feature on a particular part of this magical era… drop me a line!